Jesus

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Look out for the waves …


The child is playing in the surf, standing near the ever watchful parent (hopefully).  The parent sees the wave and lifts them up just in time saying, “whee” to transfer joy instead of fear into the little one’s mind.

You walk along the surf, your mind emptying its thoughts along the sand.  You never saw it coming, the wave knocks you off your feet.  You tumble and roll, gaining your footing momentarily only to have a second wave grasp you and take you down.  There’s that moment of fear, you want to fight back, you want to survive … a hand reaches you and lifts you up.

Oh to be the child again, always having a hand there to keep you lifted above the waves.  As children we do not have to keep an eye out, that is what parents do.  But, as adults we lose our peripheral vision on our own lives.  We get tunnel vision and never see the waves of life coming until it is too late and the big wave of life takes us under.  Then floundering around grasping for anything thing to keep us afloat, we reach out for anything and everything.  Sadly that takes many further out to sea.

The best way to survive waves is to prepare for them.  I love to walk the shore line, but if the water is rough, I go to the sandbars to keep me protected.  The Christian life is like that as well.  Waves are coming, it is part of life.  God allows them, not to knock you down and drown you, but to teach you to rely on Him.  He IS your sandbar.  When you stray off the safety of His path, He’s there waiting to guide you back.  When you allow the waves to wash you out to sea, He’s your lighthouse in the storm.  The lighthouse never moves, you simply have to look towards Him, move towards Him.

You moved, He didn’t.

You know the way, you see the way, you have to admit what needs to be done and swim back towards the Lighthouse.  He will guide, His light reaches out to you.

Psalm 27:1 NLT
“A psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation–so why should I be afraid? The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?”

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Lighting The Path


Have you ever gone camping?  Hiking through the woods?  Have you been on a retreat with your kids as a counselor or chaperone?  Did you ever walk the ocean shoreline at night?

Lighting the Path

I bet you got your  flashlight and shown it ahead of you to light the path, right?  Remember how pitch dark it was everywhere except right in front of you, in the beam of light?  If you shown it way ahead you might fall over something right in front of you.  If you show it to the side you could not see what was right before you.  There was no point in showing it behind you because you had come from there, it was behind you; you were going forward.  The flashlight went ahead of you just enough to light your path.

That is the way of the Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life. We live in a world darkened by sin.  Some areas of life are darker than others.   He is your light for your path.  He does not want you looking way ahead, to the side or behind.  He is the Light for your day, showing you His way.  Guiding you safely through the path, helping you navigate what would cause you to stumble.  Jesus died on the cross and, if you will, is the “batteries” for the “flashlight”.  You have all you need to navigate the path of life.

Do not walk through life in the dark.  Pick up your Light, allow Him to show you the way.

Psalm 119:105 (NASB)
“Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.“

Daniel 2:22 (ESV)
“He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.”

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Rooted


The other day I wrote down this thought on my Mom2Mom Christian Parenting FB page:

“With God all variables are just possibilities in the scenario.” ~ Renee’ …. I am going to continue to think on this thought He has given me …. I think there’s a blog entry in there 😀

It is true.  All the variables in our lives are possibilities in God’s hands … to mold us and shape us into His perfect plan for us.  We have a habit of messing things up.  We try to “plant” ourselves where and how we think we should be at any given time.   We make our lives comfortable and God has to make us uncomfortable to get us back where we need to be.

Life has a way of redirecting the “streams” that feed us.  Sometimes we end up in a “desert” place.  Circumstances can make it seem that the “water” has redirected out of reach, or gone underground too deep to reach.  That is when and where we find out how we are rooted.

The Redwood trees are the grandest trees, towering above all others.  Yet their root system is shallow and should not support the mighty trees. The secret to their strength is that they tie in with their fellow Redwood trees and are linked together in an underground system.  They are strong from the little seedling to the oldest tree in the forest.  They share their roots, their nourishment.  The ones furthermost from the streams and lakes are nourished through shared roots by the ones near water.

As Christians, we connect with our family and fellow Christians through churches and prayer groups.  We support and nourish each other.  We are never alone.  We intercede in prayer for each other.  We encourage and lift each other up even if the circumstances we are going through have left us feeling like we are way out in the desert.  God uses the variables in our lives as possibilities to make us strong if we allow Him to use them.  He will bring  fellow Christians along side us to aid in our trials as well as in our growth.

Tanya Tucker sang a song many years ago … “There’s a tree in the backyard that never has been broken by the wind. And the reason it’s still standing is it was strong enough to bend.”  Sometimes storms come and threaten to destroy us.  Our “roots” are strongly anchored, but the winds are threatening to crack and break our limbs and level us to the ground, leaving us useless … just roots with no visible life.   During these storms we need to be bendable.  Rooted, yet strong enough to bend.  Life kicks up some mighty strong winds.  Are we willing to bend as He allows the winds to blow?  Or do we stiffin’ up and fight back, as though we can change the storms of life.  Can you thank Him for the storm … the  rain and wind that ultimately makes you strong?  Do you keep your roots attached during bad weather to your underground network, allowing others to be blessed by interceding on your behalf with Him? Or do you give up and try to go it on your own?

Driving around you pass millions of trees you do not notice, but then there’s that tree you pass that has “character”.  It may be a little bent, or show signs of storm damage, yet it is strong and beautiful, producing fruit or flowers even though it is scarred by life’s storms.  You may even see its roots here and there showing it’s strength in its surroundings.  While other trees will be cut down without opposition,  THAT TREE … it will be considered.  It will be noticed and preserved,  maybe even singled out as a center point for a park.  It has survived, it has character, it is strong.

Today there are all kinds of variables facing you, many harsh.  Will you thank Him, remembering that “all things work together for good”?  Are you going to try to handle it all on your own?  Will you reach out to family, even your children … to fellow Christians and secure your “roots”?  Will you allow the variables to be the possibilities in His hands?

James 1:3 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials..”

Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

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It’s their decision.


Recently I have had traffic to my blog from “past Christians, now atheists”.  That boggles my mind.  How do you have the truth, doubt it and then walk away.  It stands to reason, they never understood the truth?  They were more about self?

How do they turn and walk away?

Have you ever thought about what it was like when satan* decided to leave Heaven?  He made a conscious choice to leave all he knew about God and Heaven.  First, he had the free will to make the choice.  Second, God did not stop him.  Third, he stuck with it and never went back.  God was not a puppet master.  He did not pull the strings and force satan* to walk His walk.  He ALLOWED it all to happen.

So these  “former Christians turned atheists” came across my blog and they want me to understand and help me to leave my faith.  They have proved to themselves they were raised wrong, and that all they believed is a myth.  They want to “UNconvert the converted … UNsave the saved”.  Wow.

So how could they think that way?  Well, how could satan*?  That is pretty heavy thinking on any scale.  That you could KNOW God, BEEN in Heaven and just walk away, basically denying God’s love and power.   So satan* thought to take it all, succeed on his own, and did his own thing.  Daily, here on earth, people do the same thing without a second thought.

A young man I know is going through a very tough time.  His fiance  CHOSE to leave him, leave the church, leave the walk they had professed.  The young man is understandably hurt and confused.   He thought the person he loved was a Christian walking the walk she talked.  Now it all seems to have been a lie.   This is not a new phenom, I have seen it throughout the years; people pretending to be a certain way in order to “get what they want”.   This young woman got the ‘coveted ring’, only to decide it was not enough and walked away.  He is very fortunate, although he will not realize this for sometime.

(Have you ever considered how God felt when His creation walked out of Heaven willingly?)

I have friends who have children they raised to love the Lord who simply chose to walk away.  I know of couples where one chose to leave their vows before God, the church life they shared, the children they had.  All of these made a choice and must live with the consequences.  Sadly, they leave a path of grief in their wake.

Can you imagine how God grieved over satan*?   Look at the wake of grief he brought on this earth by his choice.  Was God to blame because He did not stop satan*?  Why did He not stop Eve?  It had to grieve Him.  Was it God’s fault because He did not stop satan* in his temptation of Eve? No.  It was satan* who made the choice.  It was Eve and Adam who made choices.  It was their decision, just as your decisions are yours.  God is NOT a puppet master.

The day comes when we as parents allow our children to make their own decisions.  The day comes when as adults they are out of your control and you are not to blame for their choices.  You can be a great parent but, one day they will make their own decisions.  God is a perfect Heavenly Father.  But, daily we make choices that hurts and grieves Him because we can.  We have free will.

For those that have been hurt by a loved one who walks away … a child, a friend, a spouse …. you cannot and should not blame yourself.  Sometimes you can do all the right things and the person will still make the wrong choice.

Each day in our lives we come to the point where we make a conscious choice…. FOR or AGAINST God.  Free will.

Not so free … it cost a lot.  Jesus died on the cross for what satan’s* free will cost.  Many broken hearts and lives have paid a heavy price for someone else to have free will.

Today will you make a conscience choice for Him?   Will you celebrate the resurrection in earnest?   When you take the Lord’s Supper  will you  truly “do this in remembrance of Him”.  Never take it lightly, never take Him lightly.    Remember the cross … Remember the cost.

*satan – I know people capitalize the “S” but, I don’t.  I refuse to give him any status of importance.  He’s a snake, so satan, devil, etc. are lower case, as he is one.

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How did we get there from here?


Webster’s Definition of TOLERANCE

1: capacity to endure pain or hardship :endurance, fortitude, stamina
2a: sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own b: the act of allowing something :toleration
3: the allowable deviation from a standard; especially: the range of variation permitted in maintaining a specified dimension in machining a piece
4a (1): the capacity of the body to endure or become less responsive to a substance (as a drug) or a physiological insult especially with repeated use or exposure
As parents, grandparents; neighbors, employees; voters, bystanders … we have taken tolerance as an excuse to become apathetic.   We are tired, we do not want conflict, we just want to live and let live.  We do not want to be bothered.  We all have a reason for allowing things to just be.  With each year we just throw up our hands, turn away, give up and sit.  Hoping it all will go away, or “IT” will get better on it’s own.  “IT” can be many things in our lives.  People, situations, habits = “IT”.  Our attitude towards “IT” did not happen over night.  With each generation of neglect, apathy, or however you want to label the response to “IT”, we strengthen “IT” until it is insurmountable to overcome and take back control.  We do not like labels, society does not tolerate labels.  So we do not call “IT” by what it is.  The truth is, “IT” was, and always will be SIN.  When we first tolerate SIN and turn away, we strengthen SIN and begin to be tolerant.  Slowly we quit naming it SIN and create “IT”.  Unnamed and harmless.
I hope my ramblings are not confusing.  To best sum up my thoughts I offer this quote:

“One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin. ‘If we walk in the light as He is in the light. . .’ (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person.” ~ Oswald Chambers

I think Chambers sums it all up nicely.  So what do we do?  We acknowledge we turned away.  We stop denying and return to the truth.  As Chambers says, only the Holy Spirit can do this work in our lives.  Yes, we pray but we pray specifically for the Holy Spirit to renew us, to open our hearts to the Word we read each day.  We ask for discernment and we ask:

Psalm 51:10 (ESV) “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Philippians 4:8 (NASB)  “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

At the risk of repeating myself, JUST DO IT (previous blog).  Stop and call “IT” by the right name, SIN.  Tolerance by Bible standards = love thy neighbor as they self.  You can love someone and not love what they do.  We should not let anything that the Bible calls SIN become “IT” simply because we have become desensitized by the world and we do not want to deal with “IT”.